Pets in Springfield are still at risk for heat stroke. Learn how to treat and prevent it.

Now-a-days there is enough media warning against Heat Stroke and leaving pets and children in a hot car that most people know by now not to do it. The following chart exemplifies the temperatures of a parked car that is turned off with all the windows up.

Outside Temperature

10mins

30mins

60mins

70F

89F

104F

113F

80F

94F

109F

118F

90F

109F

124F

133F

100F

119F

134F

143F

Cited from Jan Null, CCM; Department of Geosciences, San Francisco State University

Even a person who is “just going to grab one thing real quick” can see that after only 10mins the temperature differential is 19F! Please don’t leave pets or children in cars.

But there are other ways our pets are at risk for heat stroke: leaving them outside to go potty unattended on a hot day, forgetting to fill up their water bucket, lack of shade, going on a long walk in the peak of the day. Activities that all seem harmless and part of our daily routine can quickly turn into a life-threatening problem if we are not mindful.

Particular animals in Springfield who are most at risk for heat stroke include long haired animals, the very young or elderly pets, dogs who have smooshed faces (pugs, bostons, English bulldogs, etc), animals who are accustomed to AC, patients with underlying heart disease or other major organ disease, obesity and previous heat stroke history.

Normal body temperature for a happy healthy dog or cat is 101F – 102.5F taken rectally. At Deerfield Veterinary Hospital, Heat stress is considered when the body temperature is >103F. Other causes could include an infection, recent seizure, toxicities, or cancer so it is important to have your pet evaluated by a veterinarian if you suspect your pet’s temperature is abnormal. At this point, the animal can be easily brought back to normothermic temperatures with minimal intervention and no long term effects on the pet.

Once a critical temperature of 109F is reached then coma, cardiac/respiratory arrest and death may occur.

As the body gets hotter the organs will become damaged and start to malfunction. If the heat stress continues permanent organ failure can ensue.

Immediate immersion in water and providing convection cooling with fans is the mainstay of treatment for heat stress, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. If water immersion is not possible then apply alcohol on the foot pads, axilla and groin. Stop the cooling procedure when the body temperature reaches 103F. Avoid ice as this vasoconstricts the peripheral blood vessels and can delay cooling. It can also create shivering which generates more heat.

Bloodwork may be warranted to determine the extent of organ damage and guide any supportive care measures that might be needed for the pet. Supportive care may include oxygen, IV fluids, anti-seizure meds, anti-nausea meds, antibiotics, etc. Antibiotics are needed to prevent bacterial translocation from the damaged intestines into the bloodstream. This could cause sepsis leading to life-threatening bacteremia and coagulation disorders such as DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation).

It is recommended that a pet needs a minimum of 24 hours hospitalization to monitor for any complications during the cooling down phase and recovery but depending on the severity of the case they may stay longer.

Prognosis is based on how hot the core body temperature became before the intervention was started, how quickly the animal was brought back to normothermic temperatures and if there is any permanent organ damage that remains. Possible outcomes: kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure, and neurological defects.

As any good vet or doctor will tell you…The best treatment for heat stroke is prevention.

Provide adequate outdoor time during the early morning hours or evening hours and avoid the peak hot times of the mid-day.

Avoid hot pavement/asphalt as this can burn their paws.

Pets who are accustomed to indoor AC AND those specific breeds and categories mentioned above need to be monitored very carefully while outdoors on a hot day, even if they are only out for 5 minutes, do not leave them unattended because it does not take long to get heat stress and exhaustion.

Keep water with you just in case your pet gets thirsty or starts showing signs of heat exhaustion.

Carry an umbrella with you on a walk to provide adequate shade.

Deerfield Tips and Tricks for our outdoor family members:

Provide access to shade and fresh water to drink.

Kiddie pool with fresh water. Dogs who do not like the water can be enticed to get in by placing some of their favorite toys or treats in the middle of the pool.

Shave down heavy coated dogs. Leave an inch or two to protect their skin from the sun and a small hair coat can help keep them cool as well.

Freeze 2L bottles of water and put them on their dog bed outside or in the pool to keep the pool water cooler longer.

Fans (securely placed out of the reach of the pet) for air circulation on stagnant days.

On extremely hot days consider allowing the pet to have access to AC such as a laundry room, bathroom or day boarding them at a facility that offers doggy daycare.

If you have any questions regarding Heat Stroke in your pet, please contact us at 417-889-2727. Deerfield Veterinary Hospital is a full-service pet hospital. We provide medical and surgical care as well as boarding and bathing services for your cat and dog. We have on-site lab diagnostics and blood testing, allowing presurgical and senior screenings in our pet hospital. We have both X-ray and ultrasound and the latest and safest anesthetics available for your pet during surgery.

If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding your pet’s health or behavior, don’t hesitate to ask us. We are here to help!

Did you know that the 4th of July weekend is the #1 weekend for lost pets taken to shelters in Springfield, MO and nationwide? Does your dog or cat have a noise phobia and become fearful, anxious, or stressed to loud noises such as thunderstorms, fireworks, etc? Are you making their anxiety worse or better? Here are some tips to try and create a more “Fear Free” holiday for everyone to enjoy:

Remove your fearful pet from the environment if possible. It may be less stressful to take your pet to a friend or family member’s house that is away from the fireworks and noise. If that is not possible, check with your veterinarian or boarding facility to see if they have room to lodge your pet for the night or weekend.

Create a sound-proof room or safe haven for your pets. Keep your pet in the interior most room in the home with no doors or windows to the exterior of the home. Basements make a great retreat as they are usually darker, well-insulated, and lack exterior doors or windows preventing a possible escape attempt which could lead to injury. If your pet is crate-trained, then place them in the crate with their favorite toy or blanket for reassurance. Then cover the crate with a thick towel or blanket to darken the environment and to also help buffer loud noises. Your pet will hopefully feel safe in this comfortable environment.

Provide a musical distraction using sound therapy. Playing the radio or keeping the TV on can help muffle the sounds to outside fears and stressors. http://throughadogsear.com/ is a website that has an assortment of calming music for a variety of anxieties such as fireworks, thunderstorms, car rides, etc.

Swaddle their fear away. Similar to swaddling infants, a thunder shirt ( www.thundershirt.com ) applies a gentle, constant pressure to help relieve stress and anxiety. It is a drug-free way to safely, effectively, and inexpensively calm your pet.

Nutraceuticals to calm the fear away. Products that contain L-Theanine, L-tryptophan, and/or melatonin have been shown to provide a calming effect to pets. It’s better to start these products 1-2 weeks beforehand as these sometimes take time in order to reach therapeutic levels.

Aromatherapy. Lavender and Chamomile can provide a calming effect when diffused into the room, but it is important to remember to never apply any essential oils topically to your pet without first consulting your veterinarian as some can be toxic to your pet. Feliway (www.feliway.com) and Adaptil (www.adaptil.com) are pheromones used to naturally reduce stress and anxiety in your pet and can be used for a variety of stressors. They are available in diffusers, sprays, and collars and have worked wonders for many of our patients with mild anxieties. These work best when paired with behavioral modification techniques and given for a longer period of time.

Anxiolytics and other behavioral modification drugs. Sometimes, no matter what you do, it simply is not enough to help relieve fear, stress, and anxiety in our furry companions and that’s when you need to talk to your veterinarian about prescribing a medication to prevent the situation from escalating out of control. There are many short-acting medications that can be used such as Trazadone, Alprazolam, and Diazepam that can be given within a few hours of the anticipated events to safely reduce anxiety and will not have long lasting side-effects. We have used Trazadone for many of our boarding patients when they have become fearful of being away from home and it has helped tremendously with decreasing and/or eliminating stress-induced colitis resulting in bloody diarrhea. Talk to your veterinarian in advance as sometimes these medications need to be compounded in order to get cats to easily take them.

“Ace” for your pet? Acepromazine was once commonly prescribed for thunderstorm and fireworks phobia because it is a great sedative. However, it may do little for the actual anxiety with noise phobias. In fact sometimes, it could make your pet more fearful and reactive to the situation. This medication is no longer recommended as a first-line therapy for anxiety and noise phobias. However when behavior modifications, nutraceuticals, and anxiolytic medications fail then it may be time to use this tranquilizer. This medication will help control vomiting as well so if your dog vomits in response to firework situations then this medication may be appropriate or another anti-emetic medication can be prescribed by your veterinarian.

Collars, ID tags, and microchips. If all of the above fail and your pet does manage to get free and run away, make sure they have proper and up to date identification with your contact information so you can be quickly reunited. Microchips are a permanent identification that is placed under the animal’s skin so in the event if the pet’s collar or ID tag fall off or are not on your pet when they escape they can still be properly identified and returned safely home.

We hope this helps you and your pets to enjoy a safe and Happy 4th of July!

If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding your pet’s health or behavior, don’t hesitate to ask us. We are here to help!

In order to help promote awareness to Heartworm disease, here are some interesting facts:

It only takes one bite from an infected mosquito to spread heartworm disease.

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets in the United States and many other parts of the world. It is caused by foot-long worms (heartworms) that live in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body.

Heartworm disease affects dogs, cats and ferrets, but heartworms also live in other mammal species, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, sea lions and—in rare instances—humans. Because wild species such as foxes and coyotes live in proximity to many urban areas, they are considered important carriers of the disease.

More than a million pets in the United States have heartworm disease.

Heartworm disease has been diagnosed in all 50 states.

Both indoor and outdoor pets are at risk of developing heartworm disease because infected mosquitoes can come inside.

Dogs can harbor several hundred worms in their body whereas cats typically just have one to three worms and many cats affected by heartworms have no adult worms.

There is no approved treatment for heartworm disease in cats, but supportive care can help manage complications.

Once mature, heartworms can live up to 7 years in a dog.

It takes at least 6 months for a dog to test positive after it has been infected with heartworms. This is why annual testing is recommended for earliest detection of the disease.

Once tested positive, a dog must be kept in strict confinement and have restricted activity for a period of 5-6 months during and after treatment of heartworm disease to try and decrease potential complications associated with eliminating adult heartworms.

Prevention is safe, effective, and cost effective.

You can buy 7 years of heartworm prevention for less than the cost of treating your dog one time for heartworms.

To date, the national average is one out of every 73 dogs will test positive for heartworm disease.

One out of 56 dogs tested positive for heartworm disease in Greene County, MO thus far for 2016.

Deerfield Veterinary Hospital in Springfield Missouri has diagnosed 7 heartworm positive dogs since January 2015, however we have a higher compliance rate of dogs receiving monthly preventative than compared to more rural areas. More rural areas can have as many as one heartworm positive dog diagnosed each week.

Preventatives work by killing the microfilaria and early larval stages of heartworms that your pet has picked up the previous month. If you stop giving it in the fall or early winter, the parasites might remain and cause infection.

Adult dogs over 7 months of age and previously not on a preventive need to be tested prior to starting heartworm prevention.

Annual testing is necessary, even when dogs are on heartworm prevention year-round, to ensure that the prevention program is working. Heartworm medications are highly effective, but dogs can still become infected. If you miss just one dose of a monthly medication-or give it late-it can leave your dog unprotected. Even if you give medication as recommended, your dog may spit out or vomit a heartworm pill-or rub off topical medication. Heartworm preventatives are highly effective, but not 100 percent effective. If you don’t get your dog tested , you won’t know your dog needs treatment.

There are three different types of preventative available for use to protect your pet: once-a-month chewable, once-a-month topical, or twice-a-year injection.

There is only one drug approved by the FDA for treatment of heartworm disease called melarsomine and it is administered by injection only by a veterinarian. Additional medications may be prescribed by your veterinarian to help improve the chances of treatment success and reduce the incidence of side effects associated with the death of adult heartworms.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Remember to “Think 12.” Test for heartworm disease every 12 months and give heartworm preventative 12 months a year. Deerfield Veterinary Hospital offers a variety of preventatives to help protect your pet. Let us help you decide which preventative is best for your pet, lifestyle, and budget.

The information used for this blog was obtained from the American Heartworm Society website, Companion Animal Parasite Council website, and medical records from Deerfield Veterinary Hospital. For more information about heartworm disease, please visit the American Heartworm Society’s website at https://www.heartwormsociety.org/ and the Companion Animal Parasite Council’s website at http://www.capcvet.org/.

Vets in Springfield know ticks are becoming an increasingly worrisome problem as average temperatures rise yearly and as white tail deer population increase. The lack of a really cold winter means that ticks do not die off completely as they otherwise would during prolonged freezing temperatures. Ticks are usually in wooded areas or un-kept grassy areas where wildlife live or frequent. Ticks are most active between April and July but this time frame is becoming longer each year.

Ticks will hang out over the edge of grass, leaves or brush and when they sense exhaled carbon dioxide, body odors, vibrations and light changes of passers-by they will extend their front pair of hook-like legs and catch on to their prey. This is called questing.

Tick eggs hatch into 6-legged larvae called seed ticks. After it has its first meal, which is usually a small rodent, it drops off and molts into an 8-legged nymph. It then attaches and feeds from a second host and then drops again and transforms into an 8-legged adult. After that they feed and mate then die. When the female dies thousands of eggs are released into the environment. Ticks transmit diseases to dogs, cats and humans. They do not discriminate. A tick on your dog is a health threat to your entire family.

The most common ticks in Springfield Missouri.

The American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis)

Description: Newly hatched larvae are yellow, adults are brown and blood engorged females are greyVector of: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and tularemia (Rabbit fever). Less likely is Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichia. They can also cause tick paralysis. This is when a neurotoxin transmitted from the tick as it feeds enters the blood stream and can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.

Tick Related Illnesses If you or a family member or your pet has known tick exposure and you experience any of the following symptoms then call a doctor to seek immediate treatment. Early intervention tickborne illness cases can make a difference in the prognosis.